Welcome to the Hog Blog, a blog chronicling minor-league baseball in the Lehigh Valley. Tom Housenick, The Morning Call's IronPigs beat writer, has been at The Morning Call since 2008. In a previous lifetime, he was at Lackawanna County Stadium in Moosic talking with future Phillies Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell, Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard, among many others.
He’ll now be spending his summers in search of who the Phillies are hoping to be the next Chase Utley and Cole Hamels plus any outfielder who catch and hit. What he really hopes to find are the next Mariano Rivera, Todd Helton and Jim Thome --- great human beings who happened to be great at this sport.
He spent the last five years covering Colonial League football, college basketball and high school track & field.

The two were glad to get on a plane Wednesday afternoon and head north to Allentown.

They were all smiles in the Lehigh Valley IronPigs clubhouse before tonight’s against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

Rupp and Blanco are starting in a Triple-A game for the first time since April 13, when they suffered oblique injuries seven innings apart.

“It feels like Opening Day again,” Rupp said.

Rupp hurt his left oblique on a double in the bottom of the first inning, which scored Blanco who earlier doubled.

Blanco injured his right oblique when he flied out to left in the eighth inning.

“I’m so happy to get back and get in a better routine,” Blanco said. “Sleep at night, wake up at noon.

“It was tough. We woke up every day at six in the morning.”

Both players, who took part in early batting practice at 2 p.m. today, said they are pain free.

Blanco was hitting .273 in nine games before he got hurt. Rupp had just cooled to a .231 average, but led the club in home runs (4) and RBIs (8).

Their time in Clearwater included several extended spring games. That was easier to deal with than what came before then.

“The worst part was you couldn’t do anything,” Rupp said. “The only thing you could do was ice and sit around. It takes time. You had to be patient.”

Neither player had any personal history to draw upon when it came to an oblique injury, so the lack of activity was difficult mentally to deal with.

Both learned to develop patience, particularly at the beginning.

“A lot of guys who had it before gave me good advice to just take a little bit longer,” Blanco said. “Don’t rush, because it’s a tough thing. It’s something that you can keep for the whole year if you don’t do the right thing.”

Lehigh Valley manager Dave Brundage understands Blanco and Rupp aren't going to be in a rhythm right from the start. But he welcomes their enthusiasm.

"They'll be a little rusty," he said. "That's why we've got the minor leagues. They are a couple of guys we think highly of."